Gray Magazine – Tone In Down

Gray Magazine — October/November 2017
Written by Abby Beach
Photographed by George Barberis

TONE IT DOWN

Among designers and homeowners alike, an outdated bathroom is high on the list of cardinal sins. So when Lauren Mang and Jason Floyd purchased a 1929 Tudor revival home in Portland, that was among the first rooms that needed a change. “The original bath had worn-out green tile and floral wallpaper,” says Mang, a GRAY contributing editor. “It really wasn’t our style.”

Enter Beth Dotolo and Carolina Gentry, cofounders of Seattle and Dallas-based interior design firm Pulp Design Studios, who had a hunch they could strike a balance between updating the bath and paying tribute to the home’s historic character. The clients agreed; as Dotolo recalls, Mang simply said, “We don’t care how funky or crazy it is. Just do you.”

Stripping the bathroom walls down to their studs, Pulp ditched the dated palette in favor of crisp black and white, with Art Deco elements that reference the house’s original era. Choosing Esplanade marble floor tiling (sourced through the TileBar) was a key move: “The black-and-white tile partly drove the design,” says Dotolo. Complementing it is Cole & Son’s Feather Fan wallpaper, which provides a bit of Gatsby-esque luxury. Says Dotolo, “The design straddles the line between fitting the house’s history and hitting that modern edge.”